SHORT TIME?

Leonel threw this to the back of his mind and made his way back to the Evolution Ore Mine. It was quite a distance away, but with the Segmented Cube, even this journey didn't mean much to him. Anastasia was so fast that it probably wouldn't take him any more than half a day to make it to any location within the Golden's Bubble.

Soon, it was within his sights again. Luckily, there wasn't another battle going on, and he could directly enter the mine. After analyzing the normal portion of the mine, Leonel nodded. It was a little bit inconvenient, but he had some ideas on how he might deal with this situation.

The Evolution Ore Mine was on another level compared to the Urbe Ore Mine. While the Urbe Ore Mine had been Fifth Dimensional, the Evolution Ore Mine was clearly Seventh Dimensional. There was also the problem of the multi-faceted core, but that had yet to spread to the other regions of the mine just yet.

It was both a positive and a negative that Leonel had stumbled onto the existence of such a mine.

On the one hand, it saved him the trouble of finding a stronger one in the short term. But on the other hand, it couldn't be used with such a weak foundation of Urbe Ore. Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

However, Leonel had an idea.

"Little Tolly, how many Fifth Dimensional Evolution Ores can you make out of this one Seventh Dimensional Evolution Ore? Don't try to input any of your own power."

Leonel gave Tolliver some instructions and limited his capabilities. He knew that the little guy was eager to help him and to outdo Blackstar, but he was worried about Tolliver overextending himself.

So, he thought of this idea instead. If Tolliver was breaking down a superior Ore into a weaker one, that should take basically all the pressure off the little guy. The only question was whether he could do it or not. After all, Little Tolly was in the Sixth Dimension and the Ore was in the Seventh.

Once again, it turned out that Leonel didn't need to worry at all. In fact, it didn't even take much time.

In one instant, there was just a single kilogram of Seventh Dimension Evolution Ore, and in the next instant, mountains upon mountains of Fifth Dimensional Evolution Ore began to appear.

Leonel's eyes widened.

He knew that the gap between Dimensions was large, so he had already considered that Tolliver might be able to produce a large amount. But logically, there should also be some energy lost in the process. There was no such thing as a perfectly closed system in the universe.

And yet, Tolliver had already produced more than the million-kilogram mark he was looking for, and he was still going.

Suddenly, Leonel wondered if he had left too rashly. What if he had Tolliver do the reverse and convert all the Fifth Dimensional Urbe Ore into Sixth Dimensional Urbe Ore?

Of course, it wouldn't be easy. From the looks of it, Tolliver could produce over 100 billion kilograms of Fifth Dimensional Evolution Ore from just one kilogram of Seventh Dimensional Evolution Ore.

Assuming that process was linear, that meant there was a gap of one million for every Dimension. Meaning, this same amount of Seventh Dimensional Evolution Ore, one kilogram that is, could have produced one million kilograms of Sixth Dimensional Ore of the same kind.

This meant that if Leonel had wanted to turn Fifth Dimensional Urbe Ore into Sixth Dimensional Urbe Ore, it wouldn't be easy.

Right now, he had one billion kilograms of Reinforced Urbe Ore. That was the equivalent of 100 billion kilograms of Urbe Ore. Long story short, that was only worth a thousand kilograms of Reinforced Sixth Dimensional Urbe Ore, which was well short of what he needed.

Leonel shook his head. There was no point in considering this.

He had already been fast back then, and yet he was almost caught by that Researcher Popsy not just once, but twice. He simply wouldn't have had the time.

That said, now that the Demons had attacked that region and were acting to collapse the mine instead of taking it over, Leonel might have another chance at it at a later date.

Tolliver came back to Leonel making more happy blooping sounds. Leonel couldn't help but smile, sending signs of affirmation to the Metal Spirit.

'This should be enough to reach the Peak of the Third Dimension in one go.'

Leonel's eyes lit with faint excitement.

Finally. It felt like his body had become a prison. He knew that he had so much more power to use, but his Third Dimensional status refused to allow him the chance to. It was infuriating.

He stored away the 100 billion kilograms of Fifth Dimensional Evolution Ore. He hesitated for a moment and then shook his head. He didn't know what would happen while he was breaking through, so he should cover all his bases first.

Clearly, it didn't take much time for Tolliver to mine Ores, so it would be quick.

Over the next few minutes, Leonel leaned on Tolliver to mine a million kilograms of the pure Evolution Ore. Then, he had Tolliver find the core and pull it out. He likewise passed this core, as he had done for the first two, on to Anastasia.

Then, he found a relatively safe place to bury the Segmented Cube again and then vanished. He hoped that he'd be able to come out in a reasonable time. But he knew that that was probably a false hope.

When had his father ever let him have anything easily?

Not long after Leonel left, a familiar young man wearing a pair of goggles returned. There was a happy expression on his face as everything had gone smoothly last time, but when he saw the mine this time around, his face fell.

The pressure of the mine was gone, large portions of it were excavated, and his hard work was all but ruined.

Just what happened here?